Kerry
Washington starred in the critically
acclaimed film The Last King of Scotland and
won the Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture
award for Ray at the NAACP Image Awards
in 2005. Washington serves on the board of
directors for The Creative Coalition, a group
dedicated to raising awareness of First Amendment
rights and supporting the arts in education.
She also is a member of the V-Counsel, a
group of advisors to V-Day, the global movement
to end violence against women and girls.

I
am a woman, so how could I not be involved
with being a woman. I think every step I take
in the world is a movement for women.

So
when we sit in dark movie theaters or we go
to see theatrical plays or we turn on our television,
this is now where we are telling the stories
of who we are, and who’ve been and who
we want to be – and that’s why
we take it very seriously as representatives
of the media to go “what is my place
in this oral tradition?”, and do I want
to just be the disassociated wife and perpetuate
this idea that I can’t be a thinking,
powerful, emotional, sensitive person, and
if I am going to play that person, am I going
to show how unfortunate it is, or I am just
going to let it be glamorous.

It’s
really scary when young children speak who
they are. And that’s why we all have
to do the work personally to allow that space.
We really do. We do that work personally by
coming together and having a group of women
who can say, “Oh my gosh, my five-year-old-knows
what he wants” and to know that we’re
not alone in supporting that space.